Starting around 2017 with the launch of its Zen architecture, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) has been staging an epic comeback. The seeds were planted way back in 2009 when the semiconductor company spun off its manufacturing operations and transformed itself into a chip designer. By getting out of the capital-intensive business of making chips, AMD could focus its energy on design.

That focus has paid off, with AMD winning share in both the PC CPU and server CPU markets over the past few years. AMD's progress in winning over data center and cloud customers with its powerful server chips is particularly impressive, given that rival Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) had a near-monopoly not long ago.

In the world of server CPUs, the total cost of ownership is critical. The sticker price of a server CPU is only a small part of the total cost. The cost of actually running the chip, feeding it the power it needs to churn through workloads, adds up over the chip's lifespan. Customers don't just want the most powerful chip; they want the most efficient chip as well, and one with high core counts to minimize the number of servers required.

Continue reading

Source Fool.com